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THE BRIEF: “I want to see the sea even when I’m not at the coast. I want to feel the salty breezes and hear the waves” THE OUTCOME: “I feel so happy… like it’s always been there. I can’t imagine life without it. I keep coming back into the room to get more glimpses of it”  Love what matters in your life and bring more of it into your home. Email to enquire about commissioning me. I am not here to tell you what you should do, but I am going to tell you what you could do as the end of another year approaches. How we conclude projects can really affect how the next one commences...so I thought I'd help you plant some effective seeds for your studio and creative business for 2025.  Success can often get measured on specific outcomes. That's OK until we tell ourselves a negative story if these things didn't come into being. I rather like to look at the facts, the things I DID do, the actions I DID take. These are facts and they can't be taken away from me. For example...
What DID you do that you can celebrate?  Obviously, I'm not going to scold you, nor should you tell yourself off if you experienced a loss of courage at some point in 2024. It happened to me. I will tell you about it because I was able to reflect and what was going on underneath. I had entered work into an exhibition and paid more than usual for it. The timing was wrong...opening just after Christmas. The location was rubbish...no footfall. I sold nothing. I really wasted time, effort and resources. What was going on that I could learn from?
What can you learn from where you lost your nerve this year?  What do I want to look back on in twelve months time with a smile and say "I am glad I did that" ? Some possibles might be...
What seed will you plant? And how could I help? to plan or not to plan....and why bother? Make a plan Do the plan Not more than the plan Not less the plan Just do the plan how planning helps me in the creative part of my art businiess
 "line of enquiry" - what's that? I often help mentees with this in their own practices - it is the set of words that I am exploring in any current body of work. These are the train tracks for me to experiment within, giving me something to evaluate against. This affords me immense freedom. I can't go off at any old tangent, but I can dive deeper and deeper into my subject. It is this that produces exciting work, new work, work that resonates with the viewer because it is rich and matured with my time in the studio. where planning doesn't help in the creative process
and how about the business side of my practice? Kind of the same possibilities as the creative part of the job. On the down side I can be so focussed on the "goal" than I am blinkered to the opportunities right under my nose. Got to keep those antenna open! I have had the most glorious of connections and collaborations this way. where planning really is a goldmine I'm going on a solitary art retreat in a week's time, a house by the sea that I have hired before. Many of you "joined" me via Instagram the last couple of years as I shared my process with you. I'll be doing the same...follow along. Preparations have included
The last two retreats have produced a glorious body of new work, that sold instantly, thanks to you wonderful humans - many of you felt so much a part of my time away. It was great to have your company. Who knows what I'll produce this time....but I have a feeling you''ll love it. Searching for simplicity I've been musing on how much more simplicity has been showing up in my latest work and reflecting on the gifts that simplicity brings to us and why we need it more than ever these days. I was struck by these words from an Instagram follower commenting on my new collage series ...."those who can stand still, find space in this crazy world" Thank you Lyn.  Bold, simple, calm, invigorating collages capitalising on a coherent mid-century colour palette of brown, deep blue and a subtle pop of orange to add a touch of warmth. They have been described as "little poems". I like that. So, what are the benefits of simplicity in artwork?
The need for simplicity is greater now than ever before This isn't rocket science but it is brain science Research tells us our attention spans are shortening and our multi-tasking has gone to a new level. It is hard to fight the pull of the screens in our hands or pockets. We are constantly asking questions because we can constantly and immediately find the answers. Busy brains. We need emptiness around us. Art can be that reminder consciously and also quietly. It can influence and support us to have moments of stillness. And, I love that quiet art demands nothing of me, it only wants to give to me. It desires to offer me peace and calm, strength to "stand still and find space in this crazy world" Many artists struggle with finding simplicity in their work I am fortunate that isn't my experience, but it did take some years to organically find myself here. If you've been alongside me for a while you'll have seen I am taking more and more OUT of the work, exploring what is essential and developing a stronger economical visual language. A favourite teacher of mine Sally Hirst said to me when we chatted about this recently ..."Well, I've never had anyone ask me to teach them how to create busy work!" Blinkers and boundaries. So much is ahead of us now and I'm feeling excited about my dreaming and scheming for 2024. I've been musing on what 'blinkers and boundaries' I will use to help me focus and reach my goals No New Year resolutions as such, but guiding principles for my studio practice. Less...
The thing about titles...is that they can come to mean more over time. And that passage of time and reflection can hold more value, for me at least, and hopefully for the viewer as well. My latest work, "Beneath the Waves" is a short series of paintings inspired by a swimming holiday I had in Greece in June. I swam long long swims every blue sky day in the turquoise waters around the Ionian Islands. Heaven for me. I took an underwater camera and became fascinated by the fragment our of boat, Mowlgi, that I could see underwater.. Its mass, its shape and its contrast to the tiny human forms of my fellow swimmers. As it happened on the last day I found myself in a local hospital with a burst appendix and needed emergency surgery. This is six weeks ago now and I am fit and well again. The title..."Beneath the Waves" speaks not only of the life I saw in the water, and beneath the surface,.....but the joy I feel upon recovery. The body is an amazing thing - it wants to be well - it wants to be healthy - it wants to be happy...And from beneath the waves, from the darkness of the scary hospital time I have come back to the surface with an even deeper appreciation of life. How could I not? "Steady-as-she-goes" means steady; careful; avoiding sudden changes, making small adjustments to maintain the course you were on. After Christmas comes New year and with it a barrage of messages along the lines of...
Please, stop with it. I can't bear it. The pressure is whispering in my ear like a bad friend, one who certainly doesn't have my best interests at heart. So, sit with me in the slow lane. The lane where we'll think about all the things that are already good in our lives, our businesses and our families. The things we are grateful for that don't need improving or bettering. I mean, 2022 was a good year for me professionally, why would I want to discredit that? You asked some great questions..... I put a post on Instagram asking what you might like to read about in my next newsletter, and I though I was going to pick just one topic. But no...i want to answer them ALL, because they were just so interesting to me.... How you sustain your practice? Like anything in life, I listen to when I’m tired and rest. I make sure I am doing creative work that is truly interesting to me and this feeds me with fresh energy. I get input from my artist friends, through Social Media or even better, in real life. I have a chair in my studio that I can fall asleep in…little naps are the way forward. I do a lot of exercise and I reckon this really helps my stamina. Most mostly, I am doing what I love, and so the motivation just keeps on coming. Source material and all those bits of inspiration that accumulate... What do you do with all the photos, ideas and snippets that inspire you but don't feed directly into your work at the time? For me, it is the noticing what inspires me that is important and not so much the keeping of that information, though believe me, I had a ton of photos on my phone! It all feeds into my work, and I just trust the process. I tend to work in a series with a focussed brief in mind – some words that direct me, and I will have visual references that support and stimulate those ideas. These visual prompts are close at hand on the studio wall. Christine, what do you do in the studio that propels you when you feel uninspired or weighed down by the world’s problems? I feel the sadness and I turn off the news! And I look to what is giving me pleasure in my work. I can play a small part in the world’s problems by being happy and productive and sharing what I love doing. Happy people don’t start wars. I would be interested in any thoughts/tips about how you structure time! I have a lot of work on, commissions, preparing for exhibitions, Quoting for projects etc. but find myself slightly panicking and being a little overwhelmed which is not helpful when I need to make progress! I guess what I mean is any tips on how to calm my mind, I need to get on with the painting on my easel but find I am distracted by all the other things to do. I make lists. Structure helps me get less overwhelmed. In a similar way to when I am training for an event – half marathon say, I get a plan, I start the plan, and I stick to the plan. I use a sports coach for this which is tremendously helpful and I apply the same methodology in my studio practice. I make a plan. I follow the plan, and I take time off. Rest days. Never underestimate the power of rest. Hope you found them interesting - would love to know what you think... How does vulnerability and art go together then? Been thinking about this a lot recently and trying to get my thoughts into bit size pieces. So here's my experience. I used to be a psychotherapist and I would feel most connected to my clients when they took the risk to share something new and true for themselves. Perhaps a feeling they hadn't expressed before, or a thought, or a wish they had. I still remember how heart warming and opening some sessions were...for both of us. And so in my art practice....I am exploring new ground, bringing out what I didn't know was there, not knowing quite where it'll take me or what I'll feel about what goes down on the paper or panel. It's all a risk, and I like it this way. This sense of aliveness shows up in my work for sure, and I think this is what makes it appealing or attractive to my viewers and buyers. They're not getting pre-meditated, "been there before" work. They are getting art that is authentic, genuine, born out of stepping into the unknown. And that's a shared experience.. What do you think? |
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